Typewriting machine



J. A. B. SMITH.

-TYPEWRITING MACHINE,

, APPLICATION FILED MAYB, 1920.

Patented June 13, 1922.

2.5HEETS-SHEU x.

J. A. B. SMITH.

TYPEWRITING MACHINE.

APPLICATION men MAY 8. 1920.

Patented June 13, 1922 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE A. B. SMITH, OF STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO UNDERWOOD TYPE- WRITER COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

TYPEWRITING MACHINE.

Application filed'May 8, 1920.

To all whom'z't may concern:

Be it known that I, Jnssn A. B. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing in Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Typewriting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to typewriting machines, and is illustrated in connection with a so-called Underwood continuous billing or fan-fold machine, one form of which is disclosed in the patent to IVernery & Smith, No. 1,132,055, dated March 16, 1915.

It is often desired to use separate worksheets or webs in order to be able to use different qualities or colors of paper for the several copies, or for other reasons. But difficulties arise, especially from the fact that superposed work-sheets tend to creep one upon the other, so that forms on the superposed sheets, which are in alignment or register at the beginning of the operation of typing, soon get out of adjustment.

According to the present invention, these and other difiiculties may be avoided by providing superposed work-sheets or webs with perforations or openings of considerable size, which are adapted to register with each other when the forms on the superposed sheets are in register. The perforations may have any desired arrangement on the various sheets. For utilizing these openings or perforations to effect such registration, the machine may be provided with narrow align ing or gaging rolls or devices to run upon the work-sheets in line with such openings, with the result that any sheet engaged by a roll will be carried along thereby, until its openings arrive at'the aligning rolls, whereupon it ceases to advance, because the rolls are so narrow that they lie entirely within the aforesaid openings. By having opposing rolls geared toeach other, it is possible in this way to effect substantial registration of superposed worksheets, each being carried along by the roll or rolls which. engage it until its openings reach the rolls. The rolls may engage the webs above the platen, 011 the usual front paper-table of such billing machines. 'The webs are brought by the rolls to position where they may be severed by a knife above the rolls.

In order to simplify the mechanism, the

Specification of Letters Patent.

mm feed-rolls Patented June 13, 1922.- Serial No. 379,701. I

platen may be provided with the usual linespacing devices, and may have the usual botand connections may be provided whereby the aligning rolls are held ineffective or separated, so long as the platen isin ts normal depressed position. The connectlons may be such, however, that the rolls which effect the aligning, gaging or registering maybe made effective or brought to gripping poslt-ion at the displacing or upward movement of the platen for easing the sheets preparatory to shifting back the inerleaved carbons. I Other features and advantages will herelnafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings,

F1gure l is a sectional side view, largely dlagrammatlc, of part of a typewriting inachme of the character described above, and including the present invention, the parts being shown when the typing of a form has been finished.

Figure 2 is a similar view, showing the platen in its partly displaced position.

Figure 3 is a similar view, showing the platen displaced, the carbon-paper-carriage drawn rearwardly, and the aligning rolls having completed the aligning and feeding of the work-sheets.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the mechanism.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic side view of webs aligned by the gripping rolls.

In the Underwood standard continuous bill ing machine, webs 10, 11 and 12 are drawn from the rear over a. rear extension 13 of the carriage 1-1, and carried down over a papertable 15. under the platen 16, past the feeding rolls 1? and 18, and up in front of the platen to a front paper-table 19. The webs 10, 11 and 12 are threaded through a carbonpaper-carriage 20 of a type common in said machines, said carriage running upon rails 21 forming part of said extension, and carry ing carbon-clip-bars 22, to which are adapted to be clipped carbon-sheets 23 and 24L so that matter typed upon the outer web 12 by the typebars, shown diagrammatically at the printing point 25, is reproduced upon the inner webs 10 and 11 by the carbonsheets 24- and 23. For line-spacing the webs 10,11 and 12., or other work-sheets, there is provided a line-space handle 26, which is adapted to operate the usual slide 27 to rotate the platen.

In machines of the type shown in the patent above described, the platen 16 is displaceable to enable the webs to be drawn sub stantially straight forward beneath the platen in its displaced. position, as shown in Figure 3, to enable the carbon-sheets to be repositioned. To enable this displace ment to be effected, the platen 16 is journaled by its axle 28 in a swing-frame having ends 29 and 30, and journaled at the front of the carriage upon a shaft 31.

During the operation of typing, the platen is held in its Figure 1 position by a catch 32, which overhangs a lug 33 upon the swingframe 29, 30, but which is adapted to be swung rearwardly against the tension of its spring 84 by a handle 35, which forms an extension of the catch 32. \Vhen the handle 35 is swung rearwardly, and the swing-frame 29, 30 is swung upwardly, the platen remains connected to the line-space mechanism, because the usual line-space wheel, not shown, which is turned by the slide 27, has fast to its axle 36, a pinion 37, meshing with an idle pinion 38, which in turn meshes with a pinion 39 fast upon the platen axle.

When the platen swing-frame 29, 30 is swung upwardly in the manner described, normally ineffective gaging or aligning rolls 40 and 41, at the table 19, automatically Seize the webs 10, 11 and 12. The aligning rolls 40 and 41, shown in Figure 1, are narrow, and lie adjacent the margins of the webs 10, 11, and 12, bearing upon the webs only in the line of perforations or openings 42, which are of any desired shape, and are placed at any desired distances apart in the various webs. Each web has two sets of openings 42 arranged opposite each other along each margin, and there are two sets of paired rolls 40 and 41, one set being adjacent the right-hand ends of their respective shafts and 44, and the other set being adjacent the other ends of said. shafts, and running upon the webs 10, 11 and 12, near their outer margins. Both sets of aligning rolls have nar rower faces than the openings 42, and. run outside the margins of the carbon-paper, which, according to the present invention, is usually narrower than the webs.

As has been said, the rolls 40 and 41 are normally ineffective, thus allowing the linespace mechanism to feed forward the webs around the platen. In order that the rolls 40 and 41 may be thus kept ineffective, the shaft 44 of the front or outer roll 41 is mounted as a swinging bail upon the shaft 31, and said shaft 44, in the normal or Figure 1 position, is held upward by a plunger 45, which is pivotally attached to an extension 46 beyond one of the arms 47, on which the shaft 44 is carried. In the normal position of the platen, the plunger 45 is held by its guide 48, formed as a bracket on the end plate 30, so that it bears against an arm 49 fast upon the shaft 50, on which the catch 32 is fast, with the result that the rocking of the catch to release the platen frees the plunger 45, and allows a fairly strong spring 51 to swing the roll 41 against the roll 40, or against the work-sheets or webs which may lie between the two rolls.

The shaft 43 of the roll 40 may be carried in fixed bearings in the plates forming the ends 29 and 30, and may comprise an eXtension 52 at its right-hand end, extending beyond the end 53 of the carriage, and provided with a handle 54, by which it may be rotated for a purpose which will now be described in some detail.

The openings or perforations 42 at the opposite margins of each sheet are in line with each other, and if it is desired that superposed sheets shall be advanced to the same extent, the perforations 42 in the superposed sheets are placed the same distances apart lengthwise of the sheet. Thus, it results that when the handle 54 is rotated, the sheet or web lying against the rolls 40 will be advanced thereby until its two openings 42 reach the rolls, whereupon the advance of that sheet stops, inasmuch as the rolls 40 nowhere touch it.

In order to enable the turning of the handle 54, to advance a work-sheet lying against the rolls 41, the shafts 43 and are provided with meshing pinions 55 and 56 of identical size, with the result that a web or worksheet lying against the rolls 41 will be advanced thereby at the turning of the handle 54 until its openings 42 reach the rolls 41, whereupon the rolls turn idly.

If the openings 42 are longer than the amount of creeping of the work-webs during line-spacing, and so prevent the worksheets from carrying the openings wholly out of register with each other lengthwise of the sheet, a considerable ni'unber of superposed sheets may be aligned in the manner described. Moreover, when. a perforation of an outer sheet arrives at a roll 40 or 41, the feeding of that sheet ceases, but the sheet beni-aith .it will continue to be fed by the revolving of the roll until its perforation arrives at the roll, thus gaging the sheets relatively to each other, even if the perforations on one sheet are further apart than on the other, and. so cause the advancing of that sheet more than another.

Machines of the class shown in the aforesaid patent are usually provided with a knife, against which the webs may be drawn to sever them, and such knife 55, in the present disclosure, is shown placed above the rolls 40 and 41, Figure 1, where it overlies an extension 56 of the front paper-table 19. The usual leading-edge gage may be omitted, because the sheets are gaged by the turning of the handle 54 until all the perforations register at the rolls.

After a form is typed and filled out, the platen is displaced to the Figure 3 position, and the carbon-carriage 20 pushed rearwardly by the usual handle, not shown, to carry the carbon-sheets to their Figure 3 position. Then the handle 54 may be rotated to advance the webs or work-sheets in the manner described.

To overcome any tendency of the worksheets to travel with each other, it may be found advantageous to provide separat friction or tension devices for the separate sheets, so that each sheet will tend to remain at rest unless positively pulled forward by the strong grip of rolls actually in contact with it. Such devices may take the form of spring-pressed bars 57 which are held down, by springs 58, upon fixed bars 59, there being a separate spring-pressed bar 57 and a separate fixed bar 59 for each web 10, 11 and 12, above the usual cross-bar 60of the continuous billing machine. This is especially advantageous when the forms on one web are longer than those on another which is typed with it, for it tends to insure the detaining of the shorter form during the advance of the longer form, after both have been advanced together the desired amount.

After the webs have been advanced from the Figure 3 position, the platen and its swing-frame are swung back to the Figure 1 position, and the catch 32 swings forward, lifting the roll 4-1 by a cam 61 on the end of the arm 49, which engages the plunger 45.

WVhen the typing begins, the carbon-sheets usually extend up to just above the printing line (shown diagrammatically by the typehead at 25), and the knife 55 is advantageously so placed that the point at which a previously-typed form will be severed falls at the knife when th first line to be typed on a. new form is at the printing line.

Variations may be resorted to within the scope of the invention, and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein, of normally ineffective aligning rolls above the platen, feed-rolls for holding sheets upon the platen in the normal position thereof, means for making said aligning rolls effective by the displacing of the platen, and a handle independent of the platen for rotating them to feed the worksheets.

2. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of normally ineffective aligning rolls above the platen adapted to grip the broad face of a web and to lie within the edges of openings in the web, feed-rolls for holding the webs upon the platen, a line-space mechanism for the platen, means for bringing together said aligning rolls by the displacing of the platen so they will grip work-webs extending between them, and a separate device for turning the aligning rolls.

3. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of feed-rolls for holding the webs upon the platen, aligning means adapted to grip the webs along a narrow line to feed them where the webs are continuous and to turn idly where a web is discontinuous, and means for manually driving said aligning means.

4. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of feedrolls for holding the webs upon the platen in the normal position thereof, normally ineffective aligning means adapted to become effective when the feed-rolls become ineffective, said aligning means adapted to grip the webs along a narrow line to feed them where the webs are continuous and to turn idly where a web is discontinuous, a linespace device for the platen, and means for turning said aligning means independently of the line-space device' 5. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displacealole therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of feedro-lls for holding the webs upon the platen, aligning means adapted to grip the webs along a narrow line to feed them and to turn idly with respect to a web at an opening in it in said line, and connections such that the feed-rolls and the aligning means are alternatively effective.

,6. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of feed-rolls for holding the webs upon the platen, aligning means adapted to grip the webs along a narrow line to feed them. and to turn idly with respect to a web at an opening in it in said 1 line, connections such that the feed-rolls and the aligning means are alternatively effective, means for driving the aligning means, and means for individually retarding the feed of theseparate webs.

7 In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of feed-rolls for holding the webs upon the platen, normally ineffective aligning rolls above the platen and running in narrow tracks, so that they may feed webs where continuous and turn idly where webs are discontinuous, thus aligning superposed webs by their discontinuous portions, a knife for severing the aligned webs, and means :For separately revolving the platen and the aligning rolls.

8. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a carriage and a platen displaceable therein and about which webs are adapted to be passed for typing, of feed-rolls for holding the webs upon the platen, normally ineffective aligning rolls above the platen and running in narrow tracks, so that they may feed webs where continuous and turn idly where webs are discontinuous, thus aligning superposed webs by their discontinuous portions, means for making said aligning rolls effective at the displacing of the platen to make the feed-rolls ineffective, means for separately retarding the feed of the webs, a knife for severing the aligned webs, and means for separately revolving the platen and the aligning rolls.

9. In a typewriting machine, the combination with a displaceable platen and feedrolls therefor, of aligning rolls for independently feeding sheets passed around the platen, and connections such that either the feed-rolls or the aligning rolls are eifective, but both are never effective at the same time, said aligning rolls adapted to run upon margins of the sheets, and narrow enough to fall within perforations in said margins.

10. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a platen mounted therein, feed-rolls to co-operate with said platen in engaging superposed work-sheets therebe tween, normally ineffective rolls between which the superposed work-sheets pass at the delivery side of. the platen, means for releasing the work-sheets from engagement between the platen and the feed-rolls, means actuable by said releasing means for making said normally ineffective rolls effective, and means to rotate the last-mentioned rolls to feed the superposed work-sheets to an aligning position.

11. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a platen therein, feeding means to co-operate with the platen. to grip work-webs therebetween, and normally ineffective narrow rolls between which the work-webs pass at the delivery side of the platen, a pair ofthe said rolls being at each side of the webs in alignment with a longitudinal row of openings in the webs, said openings being wider than the narrow rolls, so that, when the perforations on one side of the webs come to the pair of narrow rolls in alignment therewith, the rolls will become ineffective on the webs.

12. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a revoluble platen therein, feed-rolls for holding against the platen superposed work-webs having corresponding portions intended to be in register when fed around the platen, said superposed webs being cut away to form openings substantially in register in the diflerent webs and arupon release of" said webs from the platen and feed-rolls, to feed the webs when the latter are continuous, said. registering means becoming ineffective when superposed openings in the worlcwebs have been brought into register at said registering means.

18. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a revoluble platen therein, feed-rolls for holding against the platen superposed work-webs having corresponding portions intended to be in register when fed around the platen, said superposed webs being cut away to form openings substantially in register in the different webs and arranged in lines longitudinally of the webs, registering means to grip the superposed webs along the lines oi openings, and, upon release of said webs from the platen and feed-rolls, to feed the webs when the latter are continuous, said registering means becoming ineffective when superposed openings in the work-webs have been brought into register at said registering means, a line-space device for the platen, and separate means for actuating said registering means.

1%. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a revoluble platen therein, feed-rolls for holding against the platen superposed work-webs having corresponding port-ions intended to be in register when :fed around the platen, said superposed webs being cut away to form openings substantially in register in the different webs and arranged in lines longitudinally of the webs, registering means to grip the superposed webs along the lines of openings, and, upon release of said webs from the platen and feed-rolls, to feed the webs when the latter are continuous, said registering means becoming ineffective when superposed openings in the work-webs have been brought into register at said re 'stering means, and provisions whereby the feeds-oils and registering means are alternatively rendered eflective.

15. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a revoluble platen therein, feed-rolls for holding against the platen superposed work-webs having corresponding portions intended to be in register when fed around the platen, said superposed Webs being cut away to form openings substantially in register in the different webs and arranged in lines longitudinally of the webs, registering means to grip the superposed webs along the lines of? openings, and, upon release of said webs from the platen and feedrolls, to feed the webs when the latter are continuous, said registering means becoming ineffective when superposed openings in the work-webs have been brought into register at said registering means, and a separate retarding means for each of said Webs.

16. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage, a rotatable platen therein, feed-rolls for holding a pluralityof worlowebs on the platen, normally ineffective pairs of opposed registering rolls at opposite sides of the Webs, each pair being in alignment with a longitudinal row of perforations in the Webs, said perforations being wider than the registering rolls at their peripheries, and means to render said pairs of registering rolls effective when the Webs are released from the platen and feed-rolls, whereby theregistering rolls will rotate and advance the webs until the corresponding perforations are brought into register and then rotate idly.

17. In a typewriting machine, in combination, a carriage,ra platen therein, feed-rolls to hold superposed Work-Webs against the platen, normally ineffective narrow registering rolls arranged in pairs at the sides of the Work-Webs in alignment with longitudinal rows of perforations in the work Webs, said perforations being at like intervals in said rows, and in all Webs, and each of said perforations being Wider than the peripheries of the registering rolls, platenlifting means for releasing the Work-Webs from engagement between the platen and the feed-rolls, and means rendered effective by said platen-lifting means for making said normally ineffective rolls effective, so that, upon rotation of the last-mentioned rolls, the Work-Webs will be advanced until the next set of perforations on each side has been brought to a position so that the corresponding rolls will engage therethrough, the superposed Webs having been re-registered in such advance movement.

JESSE A. B. SMITH. lVitnesses JENNIE P. THORNE, EDITH B. LIBBEY. 

